《Modern CGI Applications in Perl》

Tentative title:  Modern CGI Applications in Perl

Ch 1:  Common Gateway Interface

What is CGI?  Perl good language for CGI.  CGI not dead yet.  (Advantages
over proprietary methods like java, .net)  CGI.pm standard for perl CGI
programming (with example.)


Ch 2: Architecture of a CGI::App

Model-View-Controller design pattern explained.  CGI.pm's inadequacy for
MVC.  CGI::Application is a solution.  CGI.pm example rewritten using
CGI::Application and contrasted.  Basic CGI::App features (setup, teardown
runmodes etc.) introduced.

Ch 3: Run modes.

The central concept of run modes explained in detail.  run_modes(),
start_mode(), error_mode(), mode_param() explained.  The CGI::App
processing pipeline. setup(), teardown(), cgiapp_prerun(),
cgiapp_postrun(),

Ch 4:  Templates

HTML::Template and all its features introduced.

Ch 5:  Object orientation

The OOP nature of CGI::App discussed.  cgiapp_init().  Plugins.
subclassing and mixins discussed.  When to use each.

Ch 6: Processing Forms

How to do it with CGI::App.  tainting and other security issues.
HTML::FillInForm. Data::FormValidator, C::A::P::ValidateRM

Ch 7: Database Integration

C::A::P::DBH, Implementing BREAD (or CRUD) with C::A::P::Bread,
C::A::P::DBIProfiler, SQL::Abstract, Data::Page discussed.

Ch 8: Sessions and Authentication

Cookies.  CGI::Session and C::A::P::Session discussed and explained.
session id in url as an alternative to cookies. Authen and Authz
discussed.

Ch 9: Alternative Output

C::A::P::Stream. C::A::P::Gzip, outputting PDFs, CSV files or sending
email.

Ch 10: Further Enhancements to the Application

Some miscellaneous topics.  The various plugins related to configuration
discussed and contrasted. Logging with C::A::P::LogDispatch.  Validation
and clean HTML with C::A::P::HtmlTidy

Ch 11:  Enhancing interactivity with AJAX

HTML::Prototype and C::A::P::HTMLPrototype

Ch 12:  Alternative Templating

Template Toolkit and C::A::P::TT.  C::A::P::HtDot, C::A::P::PageBuilder,
C::A::P::TemplateRunner, C::A::P::AnyTemplate

Ch 13:  Testing and Optimizing the Application

Testing.  Ways to speed things up discussed. Running under Apache::Registry for
modperl.  C::A::P::Apache

Ch 14: Distributing the Application

Best practices for Layout of directories and resources (templates etc.)
Packaging a CGI::App for CPAN

Appendix A:  Getting help

CGI::App wiki and mailing list

Appendix B: CGI environment variables

Appendix C: HTTP Error codes, headers and other relevant info.